Blasted

by Sarah Kane, Chris Megson (Series Editor), Jenny Stevens (Series Editor)

This Student Edition of Sarah Kane's seminal play Blasted features expert and helpful annotation and is an accessible guide for anyone studying or performing the play. This includes a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well a list of suggested reading, questions for further study and a review of performance history.

In 1995 Sarah Kane's first full-length play Blasted sent shockwaves throughout the theatrical world. Making front-page headlines, the play outraged critics with its depiction of rape, torture and violence in civil war. However, from being roundly condemned by the critics ('this disgusting feast of filth' Daily Mail ), the play is now considered a seminal work of European theatre and has defined an entire era of stage writing.

Blasted' s canonical status reflects the raw beauty and terror of Kane's writing. Probing the brutality people inflict upon one another, the suffering and violation, the play also looks at the role of love and the redemption it offers. Unafraid to delve into darkness, this is a provocative, fragmenting piece full of significance and power.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction, War, Classics, 20th Century

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 1995

About the author

Sarah Kane was an English playwright. Her plays deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture—both physical and psychological—and death. They are characterised by a poetic intensity, pared-down language, exploration of theatrical form, and, in her earlier work, the use of stylized violent stage action. Kane battled with depression, and her life was brought to a premature end when she committed suicide at London's King's College Hospital. Her published work consists of five plays and one short film, Skin.

Reviews

[KamRun · Rating 3 out of 5]

شخصا معتقدم که این نمایشی شوک‌آور است، اما شوک فقط به همان معنایی که شما از پله‌ها پایین می‌افتید، چیزی دردناک که شما را نسبت به شکننده بودن خودتان آگاه می‌کند. سارا کین

یک نمایشنامه آوانگارد و تهاجمی که تمام اصول پیشین نمایش کلاسیک را زیر پا می‌گذارد و به قول الک سیرز یقه‌ی مخاطب را می‌گیرد و ان‌قدر تکان می‌دهد تا او پیام نمایش را درک کند. یونسکو می‌گوید رسالت یک نمایشنامه تنها به تصویر کشیدن و روایت ماوقع است، بدون انتقال هیچ پیامی و نفرین‌شده (یا ترکیده) دقیقا چنین نمایش‌نامه‌ای‌ست. خشونت کلامی، جنایت، تجاوز و زنده خواری بصورت کاملا عریان نمایش داده می‌شود، زیرا این‌ها هرچند زشت و زننده، حقایق انکارناپذیر زندگی بشر بر روی زمین‌اند
نمایشنامه هشداری همگانی نسبت به عواقب بی‌تفاوتی و فقدان واکنش مناسب نسبت به خشونت و جنگ است. در واقع کین این نمایشنامه را تحت تاثیر جنگ بوسنی و بی‌تفاوتی مردم بریتانیا نسبت به آن به نگارش در‌آورده: نگاهی همگانی در بریتانیا در مورد جنگ بوسنی وجود داشت که آن را رخدادی مربوط به اروپای مرکزی می‌دانست که هیچوقت در اینجا اتفاق نمی‌افتد، رخدادی که عاقبت در نمایشنامه‌ی نفرین شده، پیشِ روی مخاطب اتفاق افتاد

در مورد عنوان نمایشنامه

ترجمه‌ی تحت‌اللفظی نمایشنامه معادل است با ترکیده یا ویران که با محتوای اثر هم قرابت دارد؛ ولی با توجه به زمینه‌ی مذهبی نویسنده و ارجاعات مذهبی فراوان، ترجمه‌ی نفرین‌شده عمیق‌تر و درست‌تر است ( نقل از موخره سایکوسیس 4:48 - عرفان خلاقی)
از این اثر چند ترجمه با نام های مختلف دراینترنت وجود دارد که همگی غیررسمی‌اند
امتیاز به ترجمه ی آقای شهرزاد: دو
امتیاز به ترجمه ی م. سودایی: سه

[Sam Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading Blasted, I had heard so much about Sarah Kane and how controversial a writer she was with subject matters that ranged from male-rape to cannibalism. Kane is often described as one of the most shocking, brutally honest and yet important playwrights of her generation (possibly, even of all time); so suffice to say, I was intrigued.

The story follows Ian, a middle-aged, xenophobic, journalist who is obsessively in love with Cate, a shy and mentally fragile younger woman who has to resist frequent advances from Ian as they hide out in a hotel room in Leeds, while a war breaks out in the streets.

When I began reading the play, I had an attitude of "Oh, come on. How bad could it be. Bring it on, Sarah Kane." While it gets off to a fairly tame start (I use that term very liberally, by the way), it quickly lives up to it's reputation as one of the most relentlessly brutal plays ever written and I speak as someone who thought he'd seen and heard it all when it came to horrifying depictions of violence, racism, rape, cannibalism etc. Without wishing to spoil anything, I counted at least three occasions in which I put the book down for a moment and take a moment to think whether or not I'd read it correctly.

But how does the play stand if you look past the shock value? It holds up spectacularly; within the first few pages, Sarah Kane does a phenomenal job at establishing the characters and their relationship with one another. I was amazed at just how despicable and unpleasant the characters could be at times and yet, I still felt like they were sympathetic three-dimensional characters; especially Ian, for example, in his first lines of dialogue swears obnoxiously, shouts racist abuse for seemingly no reason and throughout the first scene alone he constantly tries to force himself on Cate; he could so easily come across as a stereotypical hateful antagonist (and you'd be forgiven for thinking he is) and yet Kane subtly and no-too-obviously writes him as a character who mostly hates himself more than anything and is simply deflecting onto the rest of the world, thereby making him understandable but not excusable, I love it, that's great character writing.

When reading plays I often observe stage-directions and how much detail the writer goes into, but what impressed me the most about Blasted was how characters are as much defined by their actions as they are with what they say, many other playwrights simply leave it up to interpretation of the dialogue to establish the characters. But in Blasted, I was struck by just how many moments in each scene were devoid of dialogue and relied entirely on the stage-directions, showing that Sarah Kane knew how to create atmosphere and again how much of what characters actually do that defines them, they do not always have to explain themselves.

So, overall, even if it does get quite absurd at it's most gratuitous points; even if it is rather unpleasant; even though I doubt I would want to see a live production of it due to much of it's content; I still believe Blasted is a brilliant play that deserves to be praised and remembered as well as it has been. If you are easily distressed by even the notion of what the play depicts, don't bother because you will HATE it. But if you don't mind that or you're a theatre lover, like me, I will say it's a play worth reading and with my recommendation, just remember that Sarah Kane earned her reputation for a reason.

[هدى يحيى · Rating 2 out of 5]

لم أحب هذه المسرحية لسارة
مؤلمة ولكن بصورة منفرة لا تجعلك تود الانغماس في الأحداث
بل الهروب منها

...

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to know what to say about this -- it's unfiltered, provocative nightmare stuff -- but Sarah Kane was definitely an enormous and unique talent.

[Narjes Dorzade · Rating 4 out of 5]

پیش از این از سارا کین، سایکوسیس ۴:۴۸ را خوانده بودم. اعداد درهم، متن فشرده_ مالیخولیای عجیب، تام و تمام جنون را نشان می‌داد. اما “ ویرانه “ زخمی گشوده‌تر را نشان می‌دهد.خشونت عریان؛ برهنگی_
صحنه‌های بی‌پروای اروتیک. گویا شخصیت‌هایی که کین می‌سازد انسان‌هایی افسارگسیخته‌اند اگر بشود “ انسان” نامید‌شان.
ژولیا کریستوا می‌نویسد: متن (تروما) یا زخمی آشکار کننده‌ است. و متن کین ضربه می‌زند، بارها عطش خونریزی را در متن حس‌ می‌کنی_ برمی‌گردی از متن؛ باز می‌گردی به آن زیرا که می‌دانی زخم واقعیت مهلک‌تر است.
کین از آنتونن آرتو متاثر است هم او که می‌نویسد خشونت را باید بی‌پروا نشان داد و گذاشت که مخاطب در فضای متن پرسه بزند.
با کین در عمق این جنایت گام‌ می‌زنی.
از هولناک‌ترین نمایشنامه‌هایی بود که خواندم؛ هولناکی‌ای که عمق برزخ را نشان می‌دهد، برزخی در این دنیا

[Esmay · Rating 1 out of 5]

The best part of this play was definitely the moment I was done reading it

[Nafiza]

I chose not to give a rating to this play because it is not something you can just simply hate or like. True, I never want to see this being performed on stage because I don't think I would be able to stand it but at the same time, it is so raw that the message it imparts will have you thinking hours after you are done reading it. This play will haunt you long after you have read it. This is not something that I would have if I hadn't had for school but now that I have, I don't regret it. I don't know if I wanted to take that close a look at what it means to be human, what it means to be alive as Blasted showed me.

[Seb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen many plays, including darker ones (even though it's been years I've been to the theater to see adult plays, which I miss - children ones I still do).

I've never encountered anything as dark as this play.

Usually, violence and horror take form through dialogues. Here, the violence is right there on stage, rolling right before your eyes.

It should have been quite the experience, and really disturbing to see Blasted, especially in an intimate theater room. I regret I won't ever have that chance.

I can't really imagine how the essence can be captured and the text transposed. So many scenes are totally inappropriate for live plays. I don't really know how they can be performed without emptying the theater...

Read in: Sarah Kane - Complete Plays

[soph ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪ · Rating 2 out of 5]

what the fuck

[Leo Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Don't even think about it. Who would have children. You have kids, they grow up, they hate you and you die."

I love this play so much. And all I've ever done is read it! Like 5 or 6 times just in the last year or so.

First time I got through it, I felt like I was coated with this weird grime of shame. That perhaps I always had been and the play just revealed that to me. An experience for which I was oddly thankful--like someone pointing out that you have cappuccino foam on your nose, except it's not foam but dirt and it's coating your soul. So you say, "Fuck", but also, "Thanks."

I enjoy reading it more than I would seeing it, I think. It's so cryptic, you can read the lines in any number of ways. I often find myself tripping over various lines and reading them again. I also enjoy finding repeated motifs of Kane's--the symbolism of flowers and use of the word "lovely" that appears throughout her work. Lots of mentioning of meat and pork and pig in this one. Cate is a vegetarian but at the end is eating sausages. Her ability to abstain from eating meat was a luxury of the innocent life she was leading. Under the wrong circumstances, Kane reveals, even someone like Cate might end up chowing down on her dead boyfriend's leg. But we would only care about considering this if it was an interesting story, and only then for prurience.

I think there's something deeply comforting about this play because I've spent far too long depressed (not now, just, like, cumulatively--and any time spent depressed is a waste.) It's a confirmation not just of depressed ideas but of the depressed mood. When you meditate, you step out of momentary moods and tap into a neutral feeling of consciousness that is always there; this play, I feel, taps into an undercurrent of bleakness about the human condition that is also always there, which makes it so cathartic. But I'm careful to phrase it that way because there are many different moods and truths into which you can tap. It's not like there is only one bleak truth.

When I have enough skills I'm gonna ask to make a film of this. Would make it as authentic as possible. No babies eaten though obvs.

FIRST REVIEW:

Can you imagine going to see this performed?! Wtf?

Also, 90s af—vibes of Will Self/Damien Hirst/Irvine Welsh. Weird violence was so in then ;)

[Diana]

من ترجیح می‌دم زیاد درمورد نمایشنامه‌های سارا کین صحبت نکنم. چون هنوز اطلاعات کافی‌ای درمورد تئاتر شقاوت، اون‌هم به شیوه‌ای که سارا کین بی‌پرده می‌نویسه، ندارم. و دوم این‌که این‌طور نمایشنامه‌های مدرن، بیشتر به‌درد اجرا و اقتباس می‌خورن تا خونده شدن(هرچند که مثلا سایکوسیس، خود متنش انگار یه اجرای تئاتر بود.)
ولی تا این‌جا، Blasted, یکی از پلات‌محورترین کارهاش بود(فکرکنم کار دیگه‌ای نمونده باشه که ازش نخوندم. یه Skin هست که جایی پیداش نکردم.)

[kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to work in the library of a certain prestigious drama school. One of the acting students told me about this play and I picked it up during my lunch break. I can still remember the paralysing horror I felt at that one particular scene; my mouth literally dropped open and I had to put the book down for a spell to wrap my head around what I'd just read. Relentlessly brutal, ugly, and confronting - it's a satire, right? It's a satire, just like American Psycho. Except not really, because what is war if not friggin' horrific and dehumanising? The whole mythos surrounding Sarah Kane is pretty much as interesting as her writing: lambasted by critics and damn near everyone on the play's first performance, she later took her own life. Soon after reading Blasted I was talking to one of the directing students about it; he said when it was performed in his native Serbia it was described as "a gentle play about war". (Just goes to show that one man's "feast of filth" is another man's daisy patch.) I still can't imagine how on earth you could convincingly depict some of Blasted's events on stage. This one will stay with you forever, guaranteed.

[Justin · Rating 1 out of 5]

"I CAN SHOCK YOU!!!!!!"

That's very nice, Ms. Kane. Would you care to do anything meaningful with that shock?

"I CAN SHOCK YOU!!!!!!"

No? Then you're really not offering anything we couldn't find in Two Girls One Cup, are you?

[Carmo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sarah Kane é considerada por muitos como uma das maiores dramaturgas dos finais do séc.XX, embora isso não lhe retire o epitáfio de depressiva e esquizofrenica. Não andam longe da verdade; enforcou-se aos 28 anos após várias tentativas de suicídio falhadas e o seu desequilíbrio é evidente nas peças que escreveu. Mas isto sou eu que digo...
Há pouco tempo li um texto retirado duma das suas peças que me emocionou como poucos escritos o fizeram e me levou literalmente às lágrimas. Curiosamente, essa peça ainda está por ler, e será, muito provavelmente a última. Já chega de experiências dolorosas, de relatos chocantes e
mórbidos. O início de Blasted promete, ainda que esperasse algo negro e pesado, não estava à espera de ser atropelada e trocidada de forma tão violenta. Não excluo a hipótese dos acontecimentos finais serem perfeitamente exequíveis em climas de guerra; o ser humano prova constantemente a sua capacidade de selvajaria. O que não sinto é absolutamente necessidade alguma de me mutilar psicologicamente com eles. Para isso vejo as notícias na TV.
Ver isto representado num palco? Nem por sombras, bastou-me a breve pesquisa por imagens da peça já representada inúmeras vezes.
Sarah Kane era genial? Apesar de tudo acho que sim.

[Maryam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote a research paper on this for class.

Sarah Kane simply shocks her audience and doesn't shy away from society's norms and expectations. In today's words, Sarah Kane has some major balls.

In my own preference I wouldn't enjoy this as a light or fun read, it's more of an eye-opener that makes you gasp and wince at certain points. The details are brutal and obscene. It's so gory it will perplex your mind and force it to react.

Just read it. I have no more to say.

[Raha · Rating 1 out of 5]

یعنی بدتر از این هم ممکنه باشه؟؟

[Ali Mousavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

نمایشنامه خشن و آزار دهنده ای بود. درباره خشونت آدم ها و اثرات بیرونی و درونیش بین آدم های معمولی. زبان نمایش خیلی لخت و تلخ بود و دیالوگ های کوتاه و پینگ پونگی اما صریح بین شخصیت ها باعث شد بخش های زیادیش برای من شوک کننده و آزار دهنده باشه. اما در کل خوندنش تجربه جالبی بود.

[phae_ray · Rating 1 out of 5]

No thank you

[صان · Rating 3 out of 5]

اولین نمایشنامه‌ای که به زبون انگلیسی خوندم.
شاید جاهایی رو درست متوجه نشده باشم.

طبیعتن خیلی متفاوت بود با تمام نمایشنامه‌هایی که تا حالا خوندم.
توش صحنه‌های جنسی داشت، خشونت شدید داشت (خیلی شدید). ولی در کل جالب بود.
درباره خشونتی بود که توی جنگ اتفاق میفته ولی ماها ازش دوریم. حالا اومده بود همون خشونت رو اورده بود پیش آدم‌های معمولی، شخصیت نمایش، یک روزنامه‌نگار. که از کنار شنیدن چیزهای خشن راحت رد می‌شد و درنهایت اون خشونت دهنشو سرویس کرد.

جایی خوندم که مشخصن درباره جنگ بوسنی نوشته این نمایشنامه رو. درباره رسانه‌ی منفعل. نماد رسانه هم یه جورایی می‌تونست مرد روزنامه‌نگار باشه. رابطه بین زن و مرد هم جالب بود. عشق و نفرتی و خواستن و پس زدنی که در کنار هم خیلی قوی وجود داشتن و رابطه این دو رو پر از تنش و تناقض کرده بود.

[Danique van Dijk · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was.. An interesting experience..

I had to read this 'book' for my Controversial Literature class, and I can immediately see why this is considered controversial. I normally don't really love the play format when I'm reading something, but it wasn't too distracting with this book.

Since I hadn't heard much about the debate around this book, I didn't really have any expectations. So imagine my surprise when it wasn't just dark, but it was dark. This is not the kind of book I'd normally enjoy. I must admit that Sarah Kane wrote this really well, and I'm not saying anything about that; it's just that this is not my taste, and the things that happened yes I'm talking about a certain baby and eyes made me feel physically ill. Man, I'm gonna throw up for a bit. But well done Kane, it was written really well. Especially Ian, I disliked him a lot, but the way you wrote him was really well. I still don't really understand Cate and her weird episodes, but yeah. Good job. I'm still giving it 2 stars, because ew, but I want to emphasize that it was written really well - just not for me.

[Jonfaith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very unsettling, though the emotional distance between the scenes was almost convenient. Ian and Cate are in posh hotel in Leeds. You can safely park your expectations there as the narrative transgresses nearly incessantly after that. It all becomes very Lars Von Trier. People are violated, mutilated and there is death. There's also room service.

[Pau Rosell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo más parecido a un desgarro anal que he sentido en mi cuerpo.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh man, Sarah Kane. Oh man. I am really sorry you are dead because you were a brilliant writer, but I'm kind of glad I don't have to read more than five of your plays, because Blasted just made me very nearly sick.
Post-apocalyptic, in a way. But, unfortunately, quite fathomable as a vision of what might happen in a nation taken over by terrorists. And I'm not talking Al-Quida or anything that we are warned about by politicians. And probably nothing that could actually happen in the "Western" world. More likely in a poverty stricken nation that already is turbulent. Utterly stomach churning and I have no idea how it could be produced. How do you suck out and eat someone's eyeballs onstage? But the writing is really exquisite and Kane does wonderful stuff messing with theater conventions. For instance, some stage directions are said as lines, which is just genius. And for a short play, it's just gut-wrenching emotions in between horrific sex and violence. You are constantly being jerked around, which can be an excellent thing in an artform that is often pandering.

[Leo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This play should come with the biggest trigger warning ever slapped across the front page. Kane is trying to make a point about the connections between individual violence (emotional, physical, and sexual) and violence on a larger scale (war). However, the play is so filled with violence itself that it is overpowering, and extremely (re)traumatizing. Her point gets lost in the countless scenes of gruesome violence and assault.

This play did not motivate me as a reader to actually change the violent world we live in (rather, it makes me want to close my eyes, cry, and pretend it doesn't exist....), so doesn't that mean Kane missed the point? In my opinion, this play doesn't simply capture violence on stage or create a critique of our violent culture, it is actually just putting more violence out into the world. Y

Yes, I think a play about rape, violence, racism, sexism, war, and the like should be disturbing. It should haunt you and it doesn't need to have a happy ending. But it should not actually traumatize and immobilize the reader/audience, which is precisely what this play does.

[Laura ⊱✿⊰ · Rating 2 out of 5]

holy crap. the following is a summary of this play:
violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence and violence [...]

[Dunya Al-bouzidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

"من قد ينجب أطفالًا؟ ، تنجبينهم ثم يكبرون ثم يكرهونك ثم تموتين."
|
"يوجد بعض الناس ممن أريدهم أنْ يعانوا لكنّهم لا يفعلون ، يموتون و ينتهي الأمر."

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wtf did I just read?

I DO NOT recommend this book at all. Just don't read this.

[Pau]

Even though I felt uncomfortable during the whole thing I tried to understand it, but whenever I thought I was close to do it, something out of place happened (which was literally every time lmao)

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

هیچ جمله ای در این نمایشنامه ی درخشان اضافه و کم نیست. جملات کوتاه معانی بلند دارند، کلمات به قاعده چیده شده اند و هرچیز سر جای خودش قرار گرفته تا تصویر بسازد. خواندنش تماشا کردن و شنیدن است. صرف خواندن فعالیتی منفعل و یکسویه است، تاویل و نقد هنگام خواندن یا پس از آن کنش خواننده است. اما اگر برسد، اگر متن ظرفیت تاویل را داشته باشد.
تعامل مخاطب و متن قطعه ی گمشده ای است که همیشه میان کتابها جستجویش می کنم. گاه حاصل جستجو با ذره بین پیدا می شود و گاه هیچ.
متنی که خواننده را از جایگاه ابتدایی اش خارج کند و پیشتر ببرد. متنی(نویسنده ای) آنقدر توانمند و مطمئن که بی نیاز از جایگاه دانای کل باشد. آفرینش ادبی اش انحصارطلبانه نباشد و در قاعده ی "من می دانم و تو نمی دانی و رودست می خوری" خلاصه نشود. از مشارکت مخاطب نهراسد.
نوشته های سارا کین سراسر اینگونه اند.
خواننده نقشی فعال دارد و حین خواندن تعامل شکل می گیرد. البته که حدود این تعامل را نویسنده تعیین می کند.
شبیه رویا دیدن است، در کناری به تماشا می ایستی. نه کاغذی در کار است و نه صفحه/صحنه ی نمایشی. همه چیز بی واسطه جلوی چشمت اتفاق می افتد‌.
زمانی این لذت به نهایت می رسد که تغییر و رویداد غیرقابل پیش بینی اتفاق می افتد. دست و پای مخاطب که تا آن لحظه بسته بوده باز می شود، اما برای تشویق. همچنان حق دخالت ندارد و داستان در دست نویسنده ی باهوش است که همیشه از مخاطب پیشتر است. علی رغم آنکه واکنش مخاطب را پیش بینی می کند، به احساساتش بی توجه نیست. می داند کجا باید آسانتر بگیرد و کجا کاسه ی صبر را لبریز کند.
آشوب و اوج که تمام می شود، مخاطب مثل تماشاگر مبارزه ای است که مشتی هم از ناکجا خورده. سرگردان و آسیب دیده.
حال‌ که گیج است‌ و آزاد، نویسنده به تمامی کنار می کشد. کتاب باز مانده و حالا نوبت مخاطب است که فکر کند و فکر کند و درد بکشد و تصمیم بگیرد.

[Ramazan yahaghi]

نمایشنامه اش آنقدر گیرا هست که در یک جلسه خواندمش. افتضاح جنگ را نشان می دهد و چهره حیوانی انسان. باید بروم و ببینم این سارا کین کی هست.
8/9/99